maskormenace | directive ⚛ { ENCRYPTED TO NETWORK }

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directive ⚛ { ENCRYPTED TO NETWORK }

[ This post, though visible to the network, is ENCRYPTED rather heavily so as to be harder to access via remote sources, such as anyone attempting to hack in or monitor the network through something besides a communicator.

Similarly, the first two "points" in this post will be accessible to all imPorts, regardless of status. The second two "points" will be further encrypted to Registered imPorts only, although they can be hacked.

Captain Holiday is sitting in what appears to his home -- it's an apartment, a sliding door that opens onto a balcony behind him and an end table to his left, a framed photo sitting on it turned face down. There's also an ashtray, which he stubs his cigarette into and present lights another. Somewhere off-screen there is the distant noise of a radio turned to the news in another room, and far-off cooking sounds. ]

All right, listen up, everyone. There's a lotta nonsense bein' thrown around, word of mouth and a hell of a lotta other crap, and damn if it don't get tiring. I'm the liaison between y'all and the higher-up's in the military and government, and I'm the one that takes the crap when the roads collapse. My number's there so I can help you, not sit at my desk while someone runs their mouth and blames me for terrorism.

Y'wanna ask me something? Now's your chance. I'll throw y'all a bone and hope it don't come back and bite me in the ass. But first do yourselves some listening, and accept if I can't answer something then there's a reason for it.

Before I really get started, I'm tellin' y'all on the record you did a great job handlin' that situation with what's his name. Y'know who, the devil. You won't hear a peep of complaint from the law about it even if you ain't Registered, even if you bent the rules a little to handles things, that's my promise t'you -- seein' as you did us a favor, too. No surprises down the line, nothing like that. This ain't a matter of taking things into your own hands, this is a matter of public safety, common decency, and dealing with goddamn hellbeasts. Our people ain't been coming back in one piece from that kind of crap.

But movin' past that for now. That was an aside, a thank you, but down to brass tacks--

Point one's the obvious. I'm not your enemy. I ain't your friend neither, but I'm a better one than you'll make with some of the other folk around here. Y'don't wanna trust nobody named Peter Narga, and y'don't wanna trust nobody that calls themselves a Hornet.

[ He drags on his cigarette. ]

Point two. The Porter was found in 1985 and we still don't know where it came from. Back then it worked differently. We couldn't control the people it pulled in, but we got it working to send folks back after about twenty years of trying. Course, that research was useless after Lachesis synched up with the thing, and y'all know the story from there. It does what it wants to now. It's all like I've been saying from the start, we don't got control of it.

Three. Them tattoos of yours... since it's relevant. In the vicinity of any of the Porters, they react to the tech to nullify a person's powers if they earn a particular title. If someone goes on a murder spree, for instance, their wrist will say "CRIMINAL" on it. Byproduct of the signals interacting that we tried to make the best of. Ain't a perfect fix, of course, but it helps toward getting someone apprehended if you get 'em in the right place.

[ Hint hint? ]

Four.

Y'all won't hear this in the official statements, and y'all didn't hear it from me, either. The imPorts before you weren't the only heroes we had around here. We had locals, too, normal folks without powers puttin' on costumes to fight the good fight. Most of 'em retired. Ones that didn't just kinda disappeared. But people here… native to this universe, I mean, they don't disappear same way y'all do. This is technically hearsay, y'follow me? But there's compelling evidence around that some of them folks are still active underground. Fighting crime or making it, sometimes both. No one knows which ones they are from the names we used to know, splashed up in articles and all, they keep themselves anonymous wearing yellow hoodies or jackets and black scarves over their faces. They're called the Hornets, and for all intents and purposes you'd be better off thinking of them as a lot of terrorists themselves. They think they got themselves a bone to pick with the government and you saw up in Nonah how they're expressing their displeasure.

[ He blows smoke from the corner of his mouth, looking weary. ]

Anyway. I got brunch with my partner in an hour, so let's make this worth the time.

[ OOC: Closed to new responses. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What it means is that we have no part of it, and nor do we want to. None of us wish to fight. We're willing to build lives here, and assist - hence our desire to preserve the lives of your people - but we won't fight.

And for a start, you might have identified him as a threat to begin with. You had the file on him, didn't you? You knew what he could do, and you knew his history. Do you deny this?

We don't know his history. We don't know anyone's history. And if you people don't want to fight, how the hell do you think guys like him are going to get dealt with? You think normal human police that ain't got powers are going to walk away from him alive? That they have? While we're all stuck here together, that's one of the biggest things we need assistance with -- the shit we don't got the power for.

[ He grumbles. ]

I ain't asking you to enlist or nothing.

[That's all - reasonable. And Edgeworth hates that it's reasonable. He wants someone to be furious at, and Holiday is an easy target.]

And nor would I, to support your aims. Your petty, pointless aims.

You should have had a plan in place to deal with those of us who would do harm to your people. And I want to know why there wasn't one.

I might be former Air Force, but that don't make 'em any more 'my' aims than anyone else's.

[ There's really no easy way to put this... ]

That's you. Y'all are the plan. Problem is it ain't a very effective one when half the imPorts don't register and the other half become pacifists. No winning there.

[He clenches his jaw.]

Well. I'm terribly sorry we don't meet expectations.

What's your alternative plan, then. Surely a good Air Force man can alter his tactics.

Yeah, well. Same to you. This ain't no situation anyone's going to be prepared to just have dropped on their lap, but we're doing what we can as we go.

If I was good I'd still be in the Air Force. I don't strategise, I improvise.

Then perhaps you could introduce us to a strategist. One who actually gives enough of a damn to remember the murderer's name, as well.

Well, maybe if you're lucky they'll replace me with someone that meets your standards.

So how did you receive this job?

I was part of the team to usher a government reform to turn this country from a police state back to a democracy. Cripes, I'm not actually an idiot.

And what was your role, precisely, sir? What did you do?

I was a pilot, promoted to squad leader after our original one went missing in action. The details of the mission precisely, I can't disclose.

A curious leap. Usually a field promotion does not qualify one for a career in politics.

It weren't exactly an ordinary mission, nor ordinary circumstances. I'm taking my resume off the microscope now, thanks.

Why? This information is relevant to us, and I can't think why you would seek to conceal it.

Ain't the kind of questions I'm here to answer, that's why. You want to know about me, it's because we're having a conversation, not while I'm risking my job to do y'all a favor.

Are you risking your job?

Yeah, I am. Fact I'm doing this at all is because this information wouldn't get to y'all any time soon otherwise.

And why do the others disapprove of giving us this information?

Because I strongly suspect there are soviet spies among my superiors.

[Well, that sounds...

...paranoid. Or alarming. Or both.]

I see. What led you to this suspicion?

There's been certain clogs in getting information or assistance out, which y'might have noticed. Not to mention certain patterns of our events being targeted even on short notice.

I had assumed those clogs were due to inefficiency.

Edited (ICON.....) 2014-05-30 15:49 (UTC)

Mind you, I don't got hard evidence yet.

[ Could be a combination... ]

Have you reported your suspicions to anyone in power?

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[video] but it was so DRAMATIC.

[video] INEFFICIENCY!!!!!